Asked by:

General discussion

The "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" is a very useful tool in making bootable USB from ISO file, but it doesn't work under UEFI system since the USB is in NTFS and UEFI can only boot from FAT32. Here is the steps to make a bootable USB for fresh clean
install Windows 8.

Press and hold Volume-Up and Volume-Down, then power up or reboot the slate. It should go into BIOS setup.
In "Advanced Configuration", change "Attempt Secure Boot" to Disabled.
Press Volume-Up and Volume-Down to exit, then "Save Changes and Reset".
Power off the slate.

5. Plugin USB drive to slate. Press and Hold Volume-Up button, then power up the slate. It should boot into USB drive now.

All replies

Was having trouble getting my Samsung //build slate/Tablet PC to boot off of the USB stick ... and your post confirmed that the stick needed to be a 4 GB (no bigger) and FAT32 (which the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool formats the USB stick as NTFS).

Also ... for me, I was never able to boot into the BIOS ... nor was I able to boot from the USB stick ... unless I was restarting the slate device from a powered up (booted up) state.

That is, holding down volume up and volume down and powering up ... did not work for me (to get into the BIOS), it only worked when restarting the operating system. Same goes for booting from the USB stick, it only worked when restarting the operating system
(and of course holding down the volume up button).

SGraddy: The reason that I like to boot a new operating system directly from the install medium (USB, DVD, etc.) is that it gives you the option to delete all the partitions and start over again ... to start fresh.

In other words, I deleted everything ... just make sure you don't have anything you want to save on the primary partition (obviously).

SGraddy: The reason that I like to boot a new operating system directly from the install medium (USB, DVD, etc.) is that it gives you the option to delete all the partitions and start over again ... to start fresh.

In other words, I deleted everything ... just make sure you don't have anything you want to save on the primary partition (obviously).

Do these partitions get recreated by Windows setup? The recovery and push button partitions seem to be important of you want to be able to repair the tablet form say WinPE? I guess this is really more of a question of what do you loose?

Do these partitions get recreated by Windows setup? The recovery and push button partitions seem to be important of you want to be able to repair the tablet form say WinPE? I guess this is really more of a question of what do you loose?

On my newly rebuilt machine ... I have a 300MB Recovery Partition, a 100MB EFI System Partition, and a 59.11 GB Primary Partition.

So, it appears that the push button partition is not there. I don't know what that means, if anything. My thought is that if I want to recover ... I want to recover to Windows 8 RTM ... and not an earlier release ... so I think everything is good.

Good Morning folks... All of you were a great help. I followed the directions and everything worked absolutely great. I deleted all volumes from within Windows 8 setup and let Windows 8 perform it's magic. After setup and reboot, as far as I can tell absolutely
everything on this Build Samsung 7 slate is working as it should be. I also have a 300MB Recovery Partition, a 100MB EFI System Partition, and a 59.11 GB Primary Partition. Again many thanks to everyone for their help!

So i've followed these and other instructions all day. Still cannot get the BIOS to see the USB drive to boot from. There's also no " attempt secure boot" option in my BIOS. I updated the BIOS today to see if the option was in the latest
version but still not there. Any suggestions would be awesome. thx

I tried this and xcopy returns a "File creation error - The parameter is incorrect. For the file on my disk:

(DVD)G:\sources\install.wim

It's a file of 4.3GB, how do I get around the file size limitation of 2GB in the FAT32 fs?

FAT32 File size limit should be 4GB, not 2GB. My install.wim (From win8 pro x64) is only 2.9GB - Maybe you had an error decompressing? Or maybe your version of win8 is just too big. :(

@MosoLee: Thank you for this write up. I followed it, and have an upgraded tablet without problems. I did not update the firmware (I never have, it's the original), and have no issues that I am aware of. The AT&T WAN shows up, wifi, internal network works
- it's great. I did see one issue where the computer froze after sitting for 5 minutes, but windows installed a bunch of updates automatically, and it quit happening.

Great Post gang, thanks for this information. I have an issue due to the 4GB limitation as well; we are trying to put a customized windows 8 install image on our tablet that the .iso is larger than 4GB. Is there any way to work around this
issue with Fat32, or are we stuck only installing base windows 8 images that will fit under 4GB?

This post also applies to the Microsoft Surface Pro, with the information here and from Kurt Shintaku's
blog (typo with the format command, remove the "/" ) I have successfully installed Windows 8 Enterprise. NebGlobTech's question brings up an interesting problem due to the 4 GB FAT32 limit, so I wonder can a USB drive be formatted
with two partitions: a bootable FAT32 and a second NTFS partition that would allow 4GB+ files? If not, on the Surface Pro the drivers for the wireless card can be added to the image so large files can be reached over the network. Other alternatives
are using a USB hub could be used to allow a second storage device formatted NTFS, or on the Surface Pro using a NTFS formatted microSD card.

Are there any plans to update the
uefi spec to allow boot from NTFS, exFAT or other file systems?

I have a dell latt 10 tablet. I have an MSDN subscrip, and downloaded windows 8 enterprise. I have it on a CD, and it boots to that from a pC fine.

I followed the instructions word for word above, and created my usb boot key. I tested it, and my PC can boot to it as well.

I turned off secure boot etc and it still wont boot from the USB key.

So i have no way of booting (or it doesnt work) to the USB to wipe the HD.

Any help would be much appreciated.

..

I have a Dell Latitude 10 also. I could not get Windows 8 to boot from DVD or USB for the longest time. Turns out that this tablet only works with 32-bit Windows 8, not 64-bit. Once I popped a 32-bit version in, it booted and installed
fine.

5. Plugin USB drive to slate. Press and Hold Volume-Up button, then power up the slate. It should boot into USB drive now.

You have to hold the volume DOWN button to get the boot selector screen on Windows surface PC. It doesn't always work for my surface but 4/10 times boot menu screen will come up if there are multiple USB devices that are bootable. Otherwise
it just directs the boot automatic.